Polish/Russian coin

I'm hoping someone can tell me something about this coin. The seller said it was Polish, but I don't think Poland was even an independent nation in 1872, and I thought it might be Russian. Anyone know about it?

 

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Its 2 kopeks Russian coin. I know this because im Russian

 

Russian 2 Kopeks from the reign of Alexander II. From the Ekaterinburg mint. Nice rims for a coin that is so worn, also nice even color.

 

Mintage - 12734000 pcs. Copper. Coins of this type were minted since 1867.

 

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling it was Russian and it looked an awful lot like a 1916 Russian coin someone else posted recently. It seems like about five countries used the double headed eagle so that's not as useful as one would think.

 

Side note: One easy way to tell Polish and Russian coins apart is to look at the character set used on the coin. On Russian coins (including those from the Soviet Union) you will see Cyrillic characters, as in the initial post. Polish coins use "Latin" characters - basically the same ones that are used in English.

Christian

 

I thought that was the case too, but since Poland's borders have changed a lot I thought it may have been different in the past.

 

Here's some example of coins struck under the "Russo-Polish" era.

You should expect to see the denomination zlot or grosy, depending on the plural form - you get my idea.

 

Thanks, those are interesting.

 

Being of Polish Ancestry , I love seeing these coins . Thanks for showing them .

 

And one coin from me...

 

Eugene what was the relations of the two countries at the time of these coins ?

 

Officially it was a personal union. But as in many other cases where you have one big guy and one little guy, the relation was probably not quite that balanced. Here is some brief info about this dual currency system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_złoty#Congress_Poland. Click on "Congress Poland" in th first line of the paragraph to read more about the political background.

Christian

 

Rusty, during the XIXth century Poland was a Russian possession as an autonomous kingdom. Russian emperors were a Polish kings at the same time.

 

More specifically, what we now know as Poland was split between Russia, Germany and Austria at the time. My own ancestors came from the Austrian part. It was reunited after World War I, then conquered in World War II. After World War II the borders were adjusted to how they are today. Basically Russia/Ukraine gained the eastern part and Poland took land from Germany on the west.

 

Thanks , great to put the history of the times together with the coins . During this time is when my ancestors came from Poland to the US .

Sorry checked the dates of the coins , they didn't come to the US until 1897 on my maternal side , and around 1904 on my Fathers side .